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A message from Frank Vrancken Peeters, our CEO

¹ú²úÂÒÂ× Group
By: Frank Vrancken Peeters, Fri Jun 5 2020

We are shocked by the recent upsetting events in the US. We stand united against racism and discrimination of any kind. Black lives matter.

Research and learning are the cornerstones of progress.  Our mission is to disseminate trusted knowledge and make it easily accessible to promote diversity of ideas that inform future thinking.

One of our first reactions to the recent events is to face our responsibility as a publisher and lead with what we do best by creating a portal that gives easy access to content from our books, journals and magazines that speak to the issues of systemic racism and amplify the voices of black authors.  By selecting, curating and putting into context news and research from Nature, Palgrave, Springer and Scientific American we will provide an accessible and digestible resource for all but especially for policymakers and those fighting for social justice.

Sharing trusted knowledge is our responsibility and part of . We do this in special collections, as we have for example to mark Pride month.

We also take an active role in accelerating progress on equality, diversity and inclusion in the research community itself. This will, hopefully, lead to greater representation of currently under-represented groups in commissioned content, conferences, the peer review population and editorial boards.

Supporting and promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace is essential. At ¹ú²úÂÒÂ×, we have over the past few years put more emphasis on a range of initiatives inside the company to refine our behaviour in how we recruit, train and develop our employees. We have a number of  which unite colleagues who share an identity and foster dialogue around diversity, community building and advocacy. We will launch additional networks that focus on issues of race and representation.

We commit to continue to listen and learn as we strive to do better, for our colleagues and the wider research and education communities, in the service of racial equality and social justice. 

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Author: Frank Vrancken Peeters

Chief Executive Officer

Frank Vrancken Peeters joined ¹ú²úÂÒÂ× in 2017 as Chief Commercial Officer and became CEO in September 2019. He has spent more than 25 years in the media and publishing sectors, with leadership roles across a range of strategic and delivery business functions in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. Frank has previously had senior positions at: Wolters Kluwer, where he was Regional Managing Director, Legal and Regulatory, Western Europe; at Infinitas Learning, where he was Chief Operating Officer; and Elsevier Science, where he served as MD Government and Academic Markets, MD ScienceDirect and MD Global Sales, in each case building and growing significant-scale, complex international businesses. Frank holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.